Who was Eva Braun?

Eva Anna Paula Braun was born in Munich on 6^th Feb 1912 to a vocational school teacher of a middle-class family. Her existence would have been far less interesting if she hadn’t been linked to one of history’s most notorious tyrants, Adolf Hitler.

In 1929, when Braun was 17, she apprenticed at the "NSDAP Photohaus Hoffmann," a photography shop, on Amalienstrasse in Munich. Her boss, Heinrich Hoffmann, was Hitler’s official photographer, and this is how she met the infamous Nazi leader. She described him to friends as a "gentleman of a certain age with a funny moustache, a light-colored English overcoat, and carrying a big felt hat." Hitler on the other hand, 23 years Braun’s senior, was very attracted to the young blonde. According to Hoffmann’s daughter, the party leader charmed the teenager with snide Viennese charm:

“May I invite you to the opera, Miss Eva? You see, I am always surrounded by men, and so I can appreciate my good fortune when I find myself in the company of a woman.” Dates at the cinema and restaurants followed. In 1931 the 19-year-old Eva wrote a letter to the Nazi Führer:

"Dear Mr. Hitler, I would like to thank you for the pleasant evening at the theater. It was unforgettable. I shall always be grateful for your friendship. I count the hours until the moment when we shall meet again ..."

Their relationship got more serious over time, and in 1932 Braun attempted suicide with her father’s gun in a bid to get the attention of the ever so busy Hitler. The timing was perfect as Hitler was aiming for the chancellorship, and it would have been the second suicide by a young woman that could have been tied to Hitler. His niece, Geli Rauball, was mysteriously found shot alone in her apartment, an apparent bid to escape from a possessive uncle. Hitler became attentive of Braun through her recovery, and by 1932 they had become lovers.  She often stayed overnight at his Munich apartment when he was in town.

Given Hitler’s rising power and fame, Braun was often left alone and felt neglected. When political guests came over, Braun was banished to her room and Hitler was once quoted saying in the presence of Braun that “a highly intelligent man should always choose a primitive and stupid woman.”



Braun photographed semi nude.

Although Hitler disapproved, he was often

not around to stop her.

On 1 April, 1935, she complained to her diary about a recent dinner at a hotel: “I sat near him for three hours and could not exchange a single word. By way of goodbye he handed me, as he has done before, an envelope with money in it. It would have been much nicer if he had enclosed a greeting or a loving word.”

Braun's second suicide attempt occurred in May 1935. She took an overdose of sleeping pills when Hitler failed to make time for her in his life. As a compromise, Hitler provided Eva and her sister with a three-bedroom apartment in Munich that August, and the next year the sisters were provided with a villa in Bogenhausen.

Hitler loved Braun in his own way. His will, revealed much later, placed her right at the top after the Nazi party, granting her a very generous GBP 600 a year for the rest of her life. He treated her well, but kept her in place where a woman should be, below men.

Braun’s importance in Hitler’s household was emphasized when she had a tiff with Hitler’s half-sister Angela Raubal (the dead Geli’s mother), and this lead to the dismissal of Angela from her position as housekeeper in the Berchtesgaden residence. This incident made Braun untouchable by the Hitler entourage then on.

By 1936, Braun was at Hitler's household at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden whenever he was in residence there, but she lived mostly in Munich. Braun also had her own apartment at the new Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

Their affair was always shield away from the public eye, and the clandestine nature of their relationship was done with a political calculation in mind. "Many women find me appealing because I am unmarried," Hitler believed. "It's the same thing with a film actor: When he marries, he loses a certain something among the women who worship him, and they no longer idolize him quite as much anymore." A vain comment, but the Nazi leader was quite correct in his judgment. Reinhard Spitzy, a staunch Nazi and employee of the former German ambassador to London, Joachim Ribbentrop, was astonished when a young woman with whom he was unfamiliar suddenly interrupted a conversation between Ribbentrop and Hitler at the Berghof, and said that the men should "finally" come to dinner. A colleague explained Braun's position to Spitzy, who was appalled. He had imagined Hitler as an "ascetic, above sex and passion." Instead, his hero was no different from anyone else.

History is still baffled over Braun and her life with Hitler. No other person can claim to have been as close to him, yet very little has been documented on her life. Many movies, novels and plays depict her as a dumb blonde who had the misfortune to fall in love with the devil, but Berlin historian Heike Görtemaker believes Braun has been wrongly portrayed. According to Görtemaker she was politically committed woman who won ­Hitler's affections, enjoyed a healthy sex life with him, sympathised with Nazi politics and gave him psychological support. Braun was fully aware of the twists and turns of Nazi policy-making and made no attempt to speak out against the Holocaust. Propaganda minister and Hitler confidant Josef Göbbels noted several times how much the dictator appreciated his mistress ("A clever girl, who means a lot to the Führer").

A woman’s place at the time did not allow for power and influence. Politics was not to be discussed in the presence of women. Instead, the topics of discussion were apparently fashion, dog breeding and operettas. Some believe this was actually a political tactic to save the women from the scrutiny of the allied forces. Braun might have had more influence on the face of German politics than we realize.

Braun was obsessively in love with Hitler, whom she fondly called ‘Wulf’. After Hitler survived a near-death experience, she sent him a love letter saying “From our first meeting I swore to follow you anywhere – even unto death – I live only for your love.” These words would prove to be a prophecy of things to come.

Hitler in turn appreciated her loyalty and was once quoted saying : "Only Miss Braun and my German Shepherd are loyal to me and belong to me," he is believed to have said near the end of the war.

On 30^th April 1935 Hitler married his lover of 15 years in a small private ceremony. A few hours later, Hitler and Braun headed to the Fuhrer’s Bunker, Berlin and consumed cyanide. Eva Braun died first; Adolf Hitler followed 2 minutes later having had to shoot himself to speed up the process. They committed suicide, a death they desired over one in the hands of the allied forces.

Their bodies were discovered before the allied troops got to them, and were doused in gasoline and burnt. However, the Soviet troops managed to take possession of the corpses before they were cremated and they were carried by road to Magdeburg. The long journey meant the bodies were carried by day, buried at night, and again unburied the next morning to continue the leg of the journey. They were buried in Magdeburg for 25 years, and were later uncovered again in 1970 to be fully destroyed. A gruesome ending to what might have been a very ordinary love story. It is believed that Hitler tried to save Braun from this fate and was coaxing her to leave Berlin during the final days, but she stuck to her promise and stayed by his side till the end.

Was Eva Braun really just a naïve blonde who fell for the graces of a sophisticated mass murderer? A quote by Braun makes me believe otherwise; “Better 10,000 others die than he (Hitler) be lost to Germany”. She was indeed the perfect bride for Hitler.

There was no forensic backing to confirm the corpses were indeed Hitler and Braun. Many believe this was a distraction tactic, and the two escaped to a new life. Some endings remain a mystery and are lost in the pages of history.

-          Big Sis